What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

A decent enough film, but it's unlikely to blow you away. Set during WWI, a Spanish sea captain (Antonio Moreno) traveling in Italy meets and falls in love with a young German woman (Alice Terry). One problem is that he's married, and has a young son. Another is that the German woman and her older colleague (Mademoiselle Paquerette) are both spies, and convince him to help the Germany navy out in a way whose ramifications he can't fully appreciate. The film is thus about guilt and paying for the choices one makes in life, and director Rex Ingram pulls no punches. I loved the scenes on location in Naples, Pompeii (with Vesuvius smoking the background), Marseilles, and Barcelona. The scenes with U-boat attacks were tense, and the German officers suitably sinister. It's a little on the melodramatic side, and there are some rather big coincidences to help the plot get to where it's going. Even at 102 minutes, the film is belabored, and elements like the prologue could have been cut. There's something missing to truly recommend it, but on the other hand, it's well made and reasonably entertaining 92 years later.

The movie focuses on the life of a man who sails the Mediterranean Sea. As a child Ulysses Ferragut (Antonio Moreno), a Spaniard, had a passion for the sea. His uncle, the Triton (Uni Apollon), instilled in him sea tales and stories of the pagan goddess Amphitrite, a protector of sailors. He kept a supposed picture of her on the wall. Against the wishes of his father Don Esteban, who wants him to become a lawyer, Ulysses grows up to become a sea captain of his own fast freighter, the "Mare Nostrum." As he spends so much time at sea (and without much profit) he is rarely with his wife Cinta and young son Esteban. After World War I begins (1914), Ulysses' merchant business becomes very rewarding. After his ship moors at Naples in still-neutral Italy, Ulysses takes a vacation, visiting the old Roman ruins at Pompeii, destroyed long before by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (79 AD). It still smolders. At the site Ulysses meets enthralling Freya Talberg (Alice Terry), who soon tells him point blank that she is a spy for her native Austria (Austro-Hungarian Empire), the main ally of Germany. Her traveling companion is mannish, heavy-set Dr. Fedelmann (Mademoiselle Paquerette). Declaring that he is a neutral Spaniard and not directly involved with the war, Ulysses is smitten with Freya. He notes that her likeness is the same as that of Amphitrite. Ignoring his small family, Ulysses begins a long affair with Freya.Meanwhile, the concern of the German spies – Fedelmann and Count Kaledine – who have set up headquarters in Naples, is that the Italians are contemplating joining the allies in the war (English, French, and Russians) against the Central Powers (Germans, Austrians, and Hungarians). After Italy does indeed declare war against Austria (1915), Fedelmann and Kaledine leave Italy to set up shop in neutral Spain (Barcelona).Encouraged by Freya to help Germany, Ulysses provides fuel for a German submarine operating in the Mediterranean. He is promised that the subs will torpedo only military vessels, not passenger ships. Under an odd-looking German commander, the sub later torpedoes an English passenger vessel that is carrying his son, Esteban, killing him. Mournful Ferragut decides to pursue those responsible for his only son's death. Subsequent scenes of note are the long crowd chase of a German spy in Marseilles, the firing squad scenario, and the final underwater setting.Filmed on location in several countries, Rex Ingram's movie was probably his most ambitious enterprise outside of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." The predictable, melodramatic spy-story really is not too thrilling, but good visuals/photography and on-location filming in France, Italy, and Spain help. See those large ships in Naples harbor; never mind the sea-models. Uni Apollon certainly reminds one of an old sea-dog. Alice Terry is alluring while Antonio Moreno is handsome. Grotesquely untidy and obese Hughie Mack is the jolly Spanish servant, Caragol. One wants to cry out to him: "Caragol, take a bath, and please, burn those clothes!" In the end he does find himself immersed.The source of the phrase, "Mare Nostrum" originates solely from the Roman Empire. This huge dominion, the most far-flung and durable of antiquity, encompassed the entire Mediterranean Sea. As the Romans controlled the Mediterranean basin for hundreds of years, they fittingly called the vast water-system "Our Sea" (Mare Nostrum). Not only was the sea a link for many nations of the empire, but it also helped Rome to ship troops to faraway trouble spots.

Since he was a child Ulysses Farragut had been in love with the sea embodied in the legend of the beautiful Ampitetre. Against his fathers wishes he grows up to captain his own boat The Mare Nostrum but as blissful as his life on the waves is it takes him away from his family. When The War breaks out the lucrative business of shipping as a neutral nation (Spain) calls for even more of his time. While on a tour of ruins he meets a German spy who fulfills his childhood ideal. She seduces him and he in turn agrees to assist re-fueling U boats seeking military targets. His actions result in catastrophe however when it sinks a passenger ship. Haunted by guilt and the need to exact revenge Farragut pursues those responsible.Shot on location in Europe Mare Nostrum has an impressive look filled with the rich attention to detail that silent film director Rex Ingram and cameraman George Seitz (Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) excelled at. Along with Von Stroheim he provided the era with the most lush and textured canvases and Mare Nostrum is a gallery of splendid landscapes, interiors and portraits to behold. Given its splendid look and fine chemistry and performances from Antonio Moreno and Alice Terry it moves along at a leisurely but absorbing pace. The supporting cast is also up to task with a trio of effective villains singling out Paquerette's Dr. Feldman. Its a pity that Ingram retired from directing at an early age, it would have been interesting to see more extensive sound work which he did only briefly. As far as cameraman Seitz he would go to work on a regular basis with legendary directors Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder in their peak. I'd say he's a lot more important to the history than given credit for.

This is a first-rate WWI spy film, shot on location in Pompeiiand elsewhere; the story is gripping and the details ofcharacter are finely thought out. It was shown to great acclaimat AMMI and Pordenone. I provided a piano score in eachvenue